Happy (almost belated) Halloween 2014!

I wanted to do this sooner, but so much stuff really put a hex on my Halloween spirit.  Suffice to say, I still managed to have a great Halloween.  :)

Here's a drawing of Lily Merryweather, based on something that happened a few weeks ago; my baby grandniece Jenna and her mother Christina, as they exited my mouse with her mother, were scared of a spider hanging over the door outside!  I decided to use that as inspiration for my Halloween doodle, done late tonight, on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Hope you've all had a great one!

GRAVITY FALLS Fanart

Happy Halloween!

I apologize for being rather disorganized here.  And I'm really frustrated, as I wanted to spend all of October doing the following, but I got sick with the cold for most of the month (still have coughs and partial laryngitis as I write this), and it really cramped up my schedule, so I was very disappointed, because I really wanted to surprise you all.  But I might as well turn up what I have, and rest assured, I would love to do more with this stuff later on.  :)

As some of you are quite aware, I've become a huge fan of the animated series, Alex Hirsch's Gravity Falls, which premiered on the Disney Channel over a year ago.  A really funny, wild, poignant, haunting, and sometimes dark series, with a great set of main characters: 12-year old twins Dipper (the protagonist) and Mabel (his goofy sidekick), who stay with their great uncle Grunkle Stan (the owner of the Mystery Shack, located in the titular town in central Oregon) for Summer vacation, and Stan's young workers Soos (a goofy man-child) and Wendy (a 15-year old girl and Dipper's secret crush).  Dipper & Mabel's stay in Gravity Falls turns out to be not-so-normal, with all sorts of supernatural phenomena permeating the town.  Dipper's guide to the phenomena is a mysterious book he found, labeled "3" on the cover.  There are secret messages hidden throughout the series, written in secret codes (including the Caesarian code; three letters back), and these hidden details have become a popular facet with fans of the show.  With Season 1 having ended (I will not spoil the season finale; it has to be seen to be appreciated), Season 2 (which is now in the works) promises to be more exciting and really ominous!  (Creator Hirsch intends for the entire series to take place over the course of an entire Summer vacation; he aimed for 3 seasons, but production on the series proved to be really difficult and challenging, so as it stands, Hirsch is trimming it down to 2 seasons, and a movie to close the series.  That said, I can hardly wait!  But I have to...)

So I was inspired to do full color fanart of the series, but was sidetracked by my above dilemma (and you'll notice huge time gaps, as a consequence).  I'll get to that soon enough, so I'll post what I did so far: my own personal model sheet exercise/design studies.  By default, I used series director/character designer Joe Pitt's designs/model sheets for reference.  I had little to work with on some designs, so I improvised by using screenshots from the series.

Here's Dipper, done on October 1st:

Mabel, done on October 5th:

This was after my first two weeks with the cold (the first week was the worst).  Wendy (done on October 21th) was a bit tricky at first, so aside from the model sheet I worked with, I looked at various screenshots to get a better grasp of the variations in her design.

The same deal with Grunkle Stan (done on October 25th), whose physique was even trickier than his expressions!

I'll get to doing Soos, eventually.  Otherwise, look for more Gravity Falls stuff from me soon!  I've had a lot of fun learning to draw these characters.

Honey Halfwitch for the Halloween Season!

To get myself into the Halloween season (after a very busy and very strenuous two months), I did this fanart of one of my favorite characters, Honey Halfwitch!  This very obscure little witch girl was the star of 13 theatrical cartoons produced from 1965 to 1967 by Paramount's Famous Studios.  The first of the cartoons was a Modern Madcap cartoon entitled Poor Little Witch Girl (released in April of 1965), in which the character was known simply as "Halfwitch."  The late Shari Lewis (best known for creating the puppet character Lamb Chop) provided the voice for the character in the first 9 cartoons, which was created by veteran cartoonist/animator Howie Post.  For some reason, the last four episodes saw a very radical (yet short-lived) change in the look of the series to a more minimalist style, and Honey was interestingly voiced by an actual little girl (much like a Peanuts cartoon).  These last few episodes were cute and entertaining enough, but I missed the sweet Howie Post version.  (I always thought it would be funny to imagine what Honey would sound like if voiced by Mae Questel, but I'm glad Shari Lewis did the character, as that scratchy little voice she created really fit the character superbly.)  Honey Halfwitch should have had a comic-book series (much like many of the Harvey characters before her)!  Having been created by Post, she was definitely worthy of one.

Finished tonight in around an hour on tablet in Photoshop.  I drew it while looking at the series' title card for reference.

Here's the lyrics to the theme song, written by Howie Post and composed (and sung!) by Winston Sharples:

Oh, Honey Halfwitch, she's a funny

Kid witch, what a honey

When she flies up on her broom

She zips around with a zoom-zoom-zoom

She's magical and mystical and smart

Oh, Honey Halfwitch, bright and sunny

She's as cute as a bunny

She's half-wizard and half-girl

She waves her wand and you're in a whirl

She's full of tricks and sweet as an apple tart

A half-pint pixie sure to win your heart!

Rekira Halloween poster 2007

Despite being a day or two early, I present this Halloween drawing, which I did on October 31, 2007. Here, my monster Rekira pays tribute to Snoopy's famed WWI Flying Ace character, as he battles the Red Baron! This can also be seen on my deviantART site. Done in less than 90 minutes, with Crayola colored pencils and slight penciling. Note that I went for the look of a retro-Japanese movie poster of the 70s!